Dr Pamela Whitaker

Overview

Teaching and Learning

Pamela has completed an MEd in Higher Education practice with a specific interest in ecologies of care within higher education curating artistic nurture for both learners and educators.

She is an honorary lecturer for Queen Margaret University's MSc Art Psychotherapy course and an External Examiner for the MA Art Psychotherapy programme at the University of Roehampton.

Her approach to teaching is through public relations and community art therapy practices which partner with festivals and creative health initiatives within arts and cultural venues. She has published articles and chapters about festival pedagogy, the city as campus, social enterprise art therapy and the walking studio within art therapy and presented at a National Society for Education in Art and Design conference and the Learning Matters Festival organised by Ulster University's Centre for Professional Practice Enhancement.

Research

Pamela has written articles and chapters on topics which showcase environmental art therapy, material culture, the art of movement and care aesthetics.

She is a PhD supervisor for the Co-Create All-Island Doctoral Network on the topic of shared ecologies in addition to supervising doctoral researchers on topics which incorporate creative health, health communication and sustainable fashion.

Pamela is a co-investigator for CHOICE, Challenging Health Outcomes/Integrating Care Environments: A Community Consortium to Tackle Health Disparities for People Living with Mental Illness funded by the Arts Humanities Research Council, a research project led by Professor Gerard Leavey, Director of the Bamford Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing aiming to improve the quality of life for people with lived experience of mental health challenges.

She was a Practice Based Researcher in Residence at the Void Arts Centre (Northern Ireland) funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Impact Accelerator Account. The focus of her research was the art of gardening incorporating topics such as place based health, climate change gardening and artists who garden.

She is a member of the research advisory group for Mental Health Arts NI with colleagues from Queen's University Belfast specialising in health psychology and social work.

Professional Engagement

Pamela is a member of the Health and Care Professions Council, The British Association of Art Therapists and the Irish Association of Creative Arts Therapists.

She is the past editor for the Canadian Art Therapy Association Journal and was a special issue co-editor for the International Journal of Art Therapy on the topic of nature based art therapy. She was also the founding co-editor of Polyphony: Journal of the Irish Association of Creative Arts Therapists. She has been a book reviewer for Routledge and Brill publishers

Pamela has been a conference keynote speaker for the Canadian Art Therapy Association, the Hong Kong Art Therapy Association and the Healing Through Photography Conference organised by Belfast Exposed photography centre.